Few states require local police to collect race data on traffic stops

Police pull over more than 50,000 drivers on a typical day and about 20 million drivers across the United States each year. And according to a growing body of studies, police disproportionately target black and Latino drivers in traffic stops.

In March, a sweeping study out of Stanford University showed the pervasive racial disparity in traffic stops. The Stanford Open Policing Project found that police stopped and searched black and Latino drivers on the basis of less evidence than used in stopping white drivers.

White drivers, in fact, were searched less often but were more likely to possess contraband.

Just last week, Oregon released the state’s first-ever look at detailed demographic data collected by Oregon police agencies. Data on traffic stops found that Portland police searched blacks at more than twice the rate of white motorists and pedestrians during a 12-month period ending in June, OregonLive reported. During the same period, Portland police also arrested black people at higher rates than whites.

Oregon in 2017 enacted legislation that phases in a requirement that police record the age, race, sex and other detailed information during routine pedestrian and traffic stops. By 2021, every police agency in the state will be required to submit the data.

Indeed, across the country, a growing number of states continue to document this troubling disparity.

In Missouri, for instance, a report from the state attorney general this year found that black drivers across the state are 91 percent more likely than white motorists to be pulled over by police. Missouri police are mandated to collect racial data for traffic stops.

Yet, few states have policies on the collection of demographic data on traffic stops. Among those that do, the collection process is far from uniform.

Pennsylvania does not require it’s more than 1,200 local police departments to collect and analyze the data. The decision to track the information is made at the local level, often by heads of departments or locally elected officials.

Already though, data from some jurisdictions, including state police and the Philadelphia Police Department shows that black drivers are disproportionately targeted by police for traffic stops.

Alabama requires every police department to maintain statistical information on traffic stops on minorities and report that information monthly to the Department of Public Safety and the attorney general.

The federal government does not require local police departments to collect race data on traffic stops; few states mandate it. Pictured here: Susquehanna Township Police Cpl. A.J. Somma conducts traffic stops. The department has been collecting data for years.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Missouri requires every law enforcement agency to report, for every officer stop of a motor vehicle, the age, gender, race or minority group of the individual stopped. Officers must annotate the reasons for the stop, whether a search was conducted as a result of the stop, whether contraband was discovered. They are required to note whether any warning or citation was issued, or an arrest was made, as a result of the stop, any crime charged and the location of the stop.

The Missouri attorney general is required to collect and analyze their information and report on the findings to the governor and the General Assembly.

Illinois has required officers to document every traffic stop since 2004. A January report by the ACLU of Illinois found systemic racial disparities in police stops. Chicago police said the numbers failed to note the high volume of crime and calls for service made in the predominantly minority neighborhoods where police also conducted the most stops, according to an NBC New report.

Other states have more hit-or-miss policies. One of the more comprehensive surveys on police traffic stops data collecting has been carried out by The Marshall Project.

According to their research:

Nevada officers record the driver’s race only if they issue a ticket or make an arrest.

South Carolina police note a driver’s race only when the driver is not ticketed or arrested.

Georgia has a spot on its traffic warning forms for race, but not on its tickets. Troopers are not required to fill it in.

Since 2015, California and Rhode Island have required state and local police agencies to collect and report stop-and-search information.

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